Curve Ball
by LadieLazarus
Summary: Set during the Rebellion. Han and Leia have a frank discussion.


Title: Change in the Line-Up

Fandom: Star Wars

Pairing: Han/Leia

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Rebellion Era. Weird, huh? Now, this is possibly AU, possibly not. To be fair, we don't actually know when their 'relationship' started, and I'm certainly using the word very loosely, here. But, if it doesn't fit into your mental canon (I'm still not sure that it fits into mine) then just ignore it and move along. :)

"Do you want me because you can't have me or because you genuinely want me?"

Whatever question/argument Han Solo had been expecting from the princess when she boarded the Millennium Falcon this time, this had not been among even his craziest extrapolations. It caught him so off-guard, in fact, that he raised his head entirely too quickly and banged in on a bulkhead.

"Dammit! Ow!" He pried himself out of the compartment and stood up, making absolutely sure that this was really Leia and not some kind of holograph or impersonator.

_Hmm...a Leia impersonator? That could- Stang, Solo. Focus._

"I beg your pardon, your worship?"

"Beg all you want, you're not going to get it." She shrugged. "You heard me perfectly well.

"I thought I did. Maybe I need to stop by the med bay and get my hearing checked."

"I assure you that your hearing is perfectly fine." She sighed, impatiently, tapping one of her feet against the durasteel floor. "Now, if you don't want to have this conversation then I'll leave, but I needed to know."

Since they'd gotten back from Ord Mantell, her conversations with him had become more and more dangerous, in his opinion. It felt like one of those "Choose your own adventure" holo tapes that he'd loved as a kid. Except, in this version, instead of your avatar dying a horrible death being eaten by space slugs or a Corellian sand panther, you just got a real-life face full of angry princess.

Han missed the Corellian sand panthers.

"Well, uh, then, let me ask you what, exactly, brought this on?"

"Does it matter?"

"It does." He nodded, earnestly for once. There was no point in playing with her right now when she was clearly becoming uncomfortable. "I would just like to know what changed in the last five minutes."

"Nothing has changed, I'm just tired of this." She sighed heavily, dropping onto the couch behind the holo table.

"Tired of what, Leia?" He settled into the chair across from her, waving a hand to cut off the game that their motion had started.

"We dance and we joke and we talk and we fight." She propped her chin up on her hand.

"And it works." Han shrugged.

"Sure. It works in the sense that by the end of the night, you're abducting some deck hand to give her a 'tour of the Falcon,' and I'm burying myself in a mound of paperwork and convincing myself that I don't deserve a personal life."

"Okay..." Han shrugged again, uncomfortably this time. "I just don't see... I mean, it's not as though... Oh hells, I dunno. What do you want me to say here, Princess?"

"The truth. I asked you a question and the very least you could do is respond." She tapped her fingers on the table-top arhythmically.

"Oh. Right." Han wished he had a glass of water. His throat was terribly dry all of a sudden. Come to think of it, whiskey wouldn't be the worst thing in the world either.

"Come off it, Han. We both know that you want me." She shrugged casually with one shoulder. "I just want to know why."

"Why?" In the few years that he'd known Leia, she hadn't seemed the type to be prone to insecurity, and he couldn't imagine that, if she were, she'd be one to make the desperate ploys for compliments that most women did. This question, like most of hers, was not what it seemed.

"Why you want me? What's your motivation?" She lifted her chin to look him levelly in the eye. "I mean, are you interested in having sex with me to prove a point. To prove that you can or something? Am I some kind of macho challenge?"

"Umm... Can we go back to the part where we don't talk seriously?" Han ran a hand through his hair. "I'm not used to all this straight shooting where you're concerned."

"Well, if you'd like to to leave, Captain." Leia stood up and Han reached forward, gripping her wrist lightly. She sat back down, smiling slightly.

"Stay there until I figure out how to answer you." Han scrubbed the hand he'd just run through his hair over his face. "Now, you're right. There's no point in denying that I want you. I've made that pretty damn obvious." He grinned and she smiled back, her cheeks colouring slightly. "However, if what you want to know is if you're different than a deck hand, the answer is yes. I suppose you are."

"So, if we do this?" She gestured towards the corridor that led to the _Falcon_'s crew cabins.

"What... now?" Han must have looked a bit startled because she giggled.

"Well, that depends." She smirked. Han really hated how much power he'd already given her. He decided to take some of it back.

"Yes. It does. I mean, for example, you've still given me no indication that you want anything to do with me apart from making use of my brilliant piloting ability." He sat back a little, crossing his arms over his chest.

She rolled her eyes.

"You are the most egotistical piece of work..." She sighed.

"Nah. I think it's fair, your worship. I put all my cards on the table. I'm just asking you to do the same."

"Fine. Yes. I think it could have certain benefits." She shrugged. "I'm not saying I'm wild about you or anything. That'd be insane."

"But..." Han gestured, a grin lighting his features.

"I might just possibly like the way your pants fit." She grinned wryly. The statement drew a surprised bark of laughter from the Corellian.

"Is that so?" He raised an eyebrow.

"I said possibly."

"Fair enough." Booted feet came to rest on the holotable, legs crossed at the ankles. "So, if we do _this." _He, too, gestured backwards to the corridor. "The question is what changes?"

"Basically, yes."

"I'd say nothing." He shrugged, not uncrossing his arms. "I'd say that neither of us is in much of a position to start a relationship, but, as you said, we both deserve a personal life." The emphasis that he placed on the word personal caused her cheeks to flush again. He considered it a personal victory.

"True." She nodded. Suddenly, Han felt as though he was in some sort of Senate debate, rather than the cabin of his own ship. "Of course, if that's the way you want it, then you can't tell anyone."

By anyone, he suspected that she meant Luke. Of course he wasn't gonna tell the kid. What did she think, that he wanted to kill the poor guy? Only a real jackass would rub something like that in a friend's face.

"Why would I need to?"

She sat for a minute, not saying anything, but seemingly evaluating the proposal in her head. Suddenly, she stood up.

"Fine. Let's go."

"Wait... Right now? Are you serious?"

"I think I am." She nodded again. "I've got nothing for the next two hours, and I fully expect that, even if you had some kind of duty, you were planning on shirking it anyway."

"Well I sure as Selonia am planning on it now." Han waggled his eyebrows and she laughed, putting one delicate hand over her face.

"Oh boy. What am I getting myself into?"

Han held out his elbow, still half expecting her to shoot him and take his ship or whatever ploy she was planning that made this distraction necessary. Instead, she took his arm. He let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

"Well, sweetheart, I'd say that we've got about two hours to find out."

If the mechanics and deck officers found it odd that the Princess was skulking through the hangar at about 0300, then they didn't say anything about it.

And somewhere, though he didn't know it, and wouldn't for several years, Wedge Antilles just won a rather large amount of money.


End file.
